Ahead of Durfee vote, MSBA process lengthy, in-depth

Monday

Feb 26, 2018 at 1:52 PMFeb 26, 2018 at 9:31 PM

Since 2005, the MSBA has provided a little more than $222 million in funding for school projects in Fall River. According to the Herald News archives, that money went into renovating and building six elementary and two middle schools in Fall River. Those projects were all completed on time and under budget, officials said.

Brian Fraga Herald News Staff Reporter @BfragaHN

FALL RIVER — The term “red tape” was coined for the kind of effort it takes to get the Massachusetts School Building Authority to pay for a new or renovated public school.

Reams of paperwork, committee meetings, site visits, hours of interviews and in-depth analyses of construction costs all go into the years-long process of selecting, approving, managing and overseeing a project like building a new B.M.C. Durfee High School, which has been in the planning stages for almost five years.

“Just hiring the project manager and the architects takes about a year with all the documentation that goes into it,” said Ken Pacheco, the chief operating officer for the Fall River Public Schools.

Spread out over eight “modules” — benchmarks that a school district has to meet — the MSBA closely manages a school project from the initial application to when the construction crews leave the site. The idea is avoid the kind of cost overruns, delays, shoddy construction, kickbacks and lawsuits that marred school projects in the past, especially the current Durfee, which opened in 1978 amid extended delays and millions of dollars in cost overruns.

“We’ve been working on this since 2012,” Superintendent Matt Malone said in a recent interview at this Rock Street office.

Created in 2004 by state statute, the MSBA is funded by the Massachusetts sales tax. One percent of the 6.25 percent sales tax goes toward MSBA projects. The MSBA says it has given more than $13 billion in reimbursements to cities, towns and regional school districts for school construction projects.

Since 2005, the MSBA has provided a little more than $222 million in funding for school projects in Fall River. According to the Herald News archives, that money went into renovating and building six elementary and two middle schools in Fall River. Those projects were all completed on time and under budget, officials said.

Last February, the MSBA invited Fall River's applications to seek funding to repair the James Tansey and Samuel Watson elementary schools. The funding, which is being sought through the MSBA's Accelerated Repair Program — would be used to replace the roof, windows and boilers at both schools. Malone said this year he will seek MSBA Accelerated Repair funds for the Resiliency Preparatory School and the Stone School at Westall.

The Durfee project's origins

In 2012, the Fall River School Committee gave permission to then-Schools Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown to seek authorization from the City Council to submit an application — called a Statement of Interest — to the MSBA seeking grant funding to pay for a renovation of the current Durfee. In April 2013, the City Council voted to approve the submission of the Statement of Interest.

However, at the end of 2013, the MSBA denied the application to renovate Durfee, which at the time was estimated to cost around $115 million.

“They looked at it educationally and they looked at it construction-wise, and they felt we weren’t going to get the best bang for our buck, and neither were they,” Pacheco said.

The MSBA recommended the Fall River School Department submit a Statement of Interest for a new Durfee. On April 9, 2014, the school district filed its second SOI, which was signed by Mayo-Brown and then-Mayor Will Flanagan.

The 20-page SOI that Fall River submitted in April 2014 detailed the current Durfee building’s deficiencies in its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, as well as the chronic problems with roof leaks and space limitations that the district said limited its ability to integrate new programs and that threatened Durfee’s next accreditation cycle in 2022.

As it does with many applications, the MSBA sent a team of staff and independent analysts to Durfee to verify the information in the district’s SOI. The site visit included interviews with school faculty and staff and a tour of the facility.

"The commonwealth of Massachusetts takes you down a very narrow road, constantly looking over your shoulder. There is no room for error," said Nicholas Christ, the president and CEO of BayCoast Bank. Christ supports the new Durfee project.

In January 2015, the MSBA’s Board of Directors "invited" the Durfee project into the Eligibility Period, a 270-day time frame in which a school district has to form a school building committee, explain its current building maintenance practices and submit documentation to the MSBA outlining the district’s existing facilities, program offerings, grade configurations and teaching methodology.

More recently, the MSBA in December invited Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School into the Eligibility Period. For years, Diman’s leaders have voiced concern about the condition and size of the building as programs have evolved and enrollment has maxed out. The process is intended to determine if Diman's leaders would be better served to make renovations and repairs, or to construct a new facility.

During the Eligibility Period, a school district also has to secure funding for a Feasibility Study, the phase in which the project begins to take shape, with design parameters set, possible sites identified, alternative plans evaluated and the most cost-effective solution presented to the MSBA for its consideration.

In October 2015, the Fall River City Council voted to approve a $1 million loan order for the Durfee Feasibility Study, according to the Herald News archives.

But prior to the Feasibility Study, the Durfee Building Committee had to hire a project manager — Boston-based firm LeftField — and Ai3 Architects, a firm which has been the designer on more than a dozen large high school building projects in the last 10 years, including the new Somerset Berkley Regional High School.

To hire the project manager and designer, a school district has to use the MSBA’s open procurement and bidding procedures. A 13-member MSBA committee also has to approve the district’s choices.

Feasibility and Schematics

On Nov. 18, 2015, the MSBA invited the Fall River School District to begin the Feasibility Study. In this phase, the Durfee Building Committee and its consultants studied the possibility of building a new school at three alternative sites: the Duro Mills, Anawan Mills and the Fall River Industrial Park.

The committee also considered five options on the current Durfee’s 63-acre campus on Elsbree Street. Those options included a comprehensive renovation, building a new school, and various combinations of renovating the current facility and adding new construction around it.

On July 27, 2017, the MSBA’s Facilities Assessment Subcommittee agreed that the Fall River School District’s recommended option — building a new 501,330-square-foot school on Elsbree Street while maintaining the existing Durfee athletic complex and renovating the field house — was the most cost-effective option. The current Durfee has more than 573,000 square feet spread out over a sprawling footprint that Fall River Fire Chief John Lynch has compared to an airport.

"When you look at the footprint of the new building, it's quite the drastic change from the current building," Pacheco said.

Studying birth rates and other demographic data such as the rates of students who leave the conventional public schools in Fall River to attend charter and private schools, the MSBA determined the size of the proposed school, which would be built for about 2,500 students. The current Durfee has a student population of about 2,200.

"People think we've decided how big the school is going to be, but we haven't. That's been decided for us, by the MSBA. It's not something we're driving," Pacheco said.

On Aug. 23, 2017, the MSBA approved the Durfee project to the Schematic Design phase, the step in which detailed designs are produced. In this phase, architectural renderings and floor plans were presented to the public. The MSBA also generated its Project Scope and Budget Agreement, which estimated the new Durfee to cost around $263 million.

In January, the MSBA received the preliminary designs for the new Durfee. On Feb. 14, the MSBA’s Board of Directors voted to approve a grant of $165,084,900, which covers about 62.5 percent of the Durfee project. The MSBA can cover up to 80 percent of a school renovation or construction project, but that figure is usually lower because of restrictions and limits the state places on some expenses.

Looking ahead

The Durfee project is currently in the MSBA’s Funding phase, a 120-day period in which the Fall River School District has to obtain local approval. On March 6, city voters will be asked to approve a debt exclusion to pay for the new Durfee. If that vote passes, the district will then need the City Council to approve a Project Funding Agreement that will define the scope, budget and schedule for the project.

If a Project Funding Agreement is signed, the Fall River School Department can then authorize its project manager and architect to begin finishing the official documents for the new Durfee's design and construction. The MSBA would have to approve those documents.

“Right now, we have more or less the floor plan and outside plan,” Pacheco said. “Once the PFA is signed, then you get into the nitty gritty and all the information and exact details you need for construction documents.”

With a signed PFA, the district could then submit a request to the MSBA to be reimbursed a portion of the Feasibility Study. According to the MSBA, the Fall River School Department will be reimbursed about 80 percent of the $1 million cost.

During the construction and final phases, a school district has to report to MSBA on a project’s progress to confirm that it is on schedule and within budget. The $263 million figure includes built-in estimates for slightly higher construction and materials expenses over the next three years.

“When the MSBA certifies a number, that is the project cost. It’s locked in. We cannot spend more than that,” Malone said.

If Fall River’s voters approve the project, construction begins in 2019, with the doors expected to open in September 2021. As the new Durfee nears completion, the MSBA would make its final grant payment to the school district.

The MSBA would also send the district one final piece of red tape: a Closeout Questionnaire.

Email Brian Fraga at bfraga@heraldnews.com.

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